With the first year of the new millennium drawing to an end, it is clear that we are no longer in Kansas, Toto. Forces more powerful than ruby slippers have transported us to the "land" of information, where the unit of weight is the bit, rather than the oz. The explosion of information has changed many things, not the least of which is that more and more people are earning their livelihood by using their minds - so much so that this constitutes a true revolution.

As the Industrial Age was distinctively different from the Agricultural Age, the Information Age is something else again. One of the strongest principles setting the new age apart from the old ones is personalization. Humans were interchangeable cogs in the wheels of progress for the agricultural and industrial societies. In the information society, however, they are unique wheels unto themselves, and thus far more important individually.

SELF-CLARIFICATIONThe uniqueness of the individual and the demands of information technology impel us to the realization that we must choose to clarify ourselves - taking responsibility for our own actions and the attainment of our own goals - or be left in the dustbin of a politically driven nightmare of postindustrialism.

The politicians' unbearably cloudy "vision" of unlimited abundance is a fantasy, the dream of those who would enslave us to be our brothers' keepers (also our sisters, our parents, our children . . . and, of course, all our "fellow Americans"). Their vision means fostering interdependency, egalitarianism, and submissiveness to an all-knowing maternal State, all in the names of harmony, democracy, and "compassion."

CHOOSING SELF-RESPONSIBILITYSelf-responsibility is not a political agenda, nor is it part of the educational curriculum, and there is no widespread acknowledgment of its value. Yet we need it now more than ever if we are to outgrow the world of children and become mature adults. Why? Because Internet use became a critical-mass phenomenon in 2000, with the estimated number of users exceeding 50 million. Thus, the technology is now in place to offer the highest possible advantage to those who take charge of their own lives and migrate their business, creativity, and even social activities to the World Wide Web. On the Web, independence, individuality, and meritocracy rule. There is no other way to operate on the information frontier.

VISIONARY LEADERSHIPThe meaning of self-responsibility is apparent to those of us on the frontlines of the life extension crusade. We who have struggled against the powers of intimidation and the vested authority of the health, drug, and medical bureaucracies have arrived at the conclusion that if we don't take our own health into our own hands, no one else will. Just as in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, in the land of information - where all can see - the true visionary looks to the horizon beyond the immediacy of the Band-Aid and the quick fix. Health is not a passive achievement, but one requiring the highest level of proactivity.

In this regard, Life Enhancement has trained its eyes on the future and continued to push the envelope. In 2000, we introduced a number of extraordinary products that would not have been possible even a few years earlier. They are products of the Information Age and go beyond anything we have done before.

HEADLINE: US INTERNET SURFERS WANT MEDICAL INFOAccording to a recent survey, more Americans surf the Internet looking for medical information than for sports scores, stock quotes, or online shopping. Instead of playing games or watching TV, these people are taking care of their health by gaining knowledge about diseases and treatment, clinical trials, and alternative and complementary topics. Surprisingly, about 55% of all Internet users said they had sought health information, outranking such popular activities as online shopping, done by only 47%.

No doubt, part of this is due to the inadequate time allotted by doctors to their information-starved patients, who apparently crave more information then they're receiving. Whether battling a disease or just staying healthy, surfing for biomedical information is becoming a national pastime, in which success follows by virtue of the activity's continuity: the more you search, the better you get. Moreover, nearly half of Internet users polled in the survey were satisfied, saying that what they found enabled them to improve how they care for themselves. Ten percent said they had either filled prescriptions or bought dietary supplements online.

LIFE ENHANCEMENT HELPS MAKE THE WEB A BETTER PLACEAs a principal purveyor of Internet biomedical information (with several thousand real pages of information online), we are proud to be significant participants in the biomedical information explosion. Our site (www.life-enhancement.com) is a sight to behold, with its user-friendly platform and advanced search engine, along with a shopping cart and many, many internal links. These enable you to scour a subject, some of which are linked to 20, 30, or more allied subjects.

As the 60s gave birth to the spiritual upheaval, the 70s to the consciousness revolution, the 80s to the self-help crusade, and the 90s to personal growth expeditions, the 00s will embrace all of those and then some. These are good times to be alive. Thus it is all the more important that we continue climbing the tree of knowledge and hoisting ourselves up the ladder of self-evolution. Wishing you the best of good health in the new year, and many more to come.

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